From the very start of free agency, the Los Angeles Lakers made it a priority to retain Austin Reaves. Going from being undrafted in 2021 to starting for the Lakers in the playoffs, Reaves rapidly became an integral part of his team's rotations during the 2022-23 season. This is why Los Angeles could not afford to lose him as a restricted free agent.
Between their lack of cap space and Reaves' contract situation, the Lakers knew that re-signing Reaves could be a challenge. Not only were they limited with what they could offer him, more on that shortly, but the San Antonio Spurs were a threat to sign the young guard to an offer sheet.
The Spurs entered this offseason with some of the most cap space out of any team in the league. After selecting Victor Wembanyama first overall in the 2023 NBA Draft, they have regained relevance in the Western Conference. Adding a young, versatile guard like Reaves would have been advantageous to this organization not only because of his skillset, but because they would have really hurt the Lakers by signing him. While an offer sheet was never agreed upon, San Antonio apparently had multiple offers lined up to try and poach Reaves from Los Angeles.
According to Jovan Buha from The Athletic, the Spurs were considering two different offers for Reaves. The first was for the maximum amount of $100 million over four years and the other was a slightly smaller deal at $60 million over three seasons. As Buha states, either offer matched by the Lakers would have raised Reaves' salary dramatically. Luckily for Los Angeles, their mindset of wanting to match any offer that came Reaves' way forced the Spurs to look elsewhere in free agency.
It would have been a big deal if San Antonio offered the Lakers' guard a four-year, $100 million contract because if Los Angeles had been forced to match that, they would not have been able to add Gabe Vincent in free agency. Also, they may not have been able to afford to keep both Rui Hachimura and D'Angelo Russell.
Getting in trouble financially limited the Lakers and their ability to win over the last few years. General manager Rob Pelinka and the team's front office did not want to make the same mistakes that dug them in a hole to begin with, which is why they were aggressive in re-signing Reaves entering free agency.
As for the 25-year-old's contract and what the Lakers could have offered him, the max he could have received was just over $52 million over four seasons due to the team only owning Early Bird rights on him. This is what he received from Los Angeles, as Reaves signed a four-year, $53.8 million contract that contains a player option in the final year. If San Antonio followed through with what they were considering, they could have really put Los Angeles in a tough spot financially.
The “Arenas Rule,” a rule created to protect teams and their restricted free agents, only allows rival teams to offer a starting salary equal to the non-taxpayer mid-level exception. In this case with Reaves though, the Spurs could offer him the maximum amount in the final two years of his contract since they were a team with outright cap space in free agency.
As a result, San Antonio's possible four-year deal would have paid Reaves just under $12 million during his first two seasons, followed by over $75 million in the final two years. In total, this would have equated to a four-year, $100 million offer for the former undrafted guard.
The Lakers ended up getting very lucky with the contract that they retained Reaves on, as his salary is very team-friendly over the course of the next four seasons. Gaining valuable experience as a member of Team USA this offseason, Reaves is on track to become an integral part of the Lakers' core alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis heading into the 2023-24 NBA season.
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